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Avaaz advertising campaigns, funded by thousands of small donations, have delivered messages and changed policies throughout the world.

Stand With The Maasai

Avaaz placed a full page ad on page 7 the East African newspaper in May 2013, signed by the Maasai elders of Ngorongoro District, warning President Kikwete that ruling party CCM would lose the crucial Maasai vote in the next general election if the president did not drop plans to clear thousands of Maasai villagers from their land in Loliondo.
According to the plan, the government would clear 1,500 kilometres of the Loliondo Game Controlled Area, removing villages and schools and preventing thousands of Maasai from grazing their herds on land that has been theirs for generations.

Rough Justice in India: MPs fight to keep criminals in power

A hard hitting full page ad by Indian cartoonist Satish Acharya was published by Avaaz in The Indian Express ahead of an expected Parliamentary vote. The ad, showing MPs clubbing a judge, has been filed on behalf of over 65,000 Indian citizens who backed the Avaaz campaign demanding that politicians accept the Supreme Court ruling to cast out convicted criminals from politics.

Stop Rape in West Bengal

The debate on rape and violence against women in West Bengal is being crushed with people to scared to people out. In an attempt to break the silence, Avaaz tried to take out adverts with 5 advertisers -- all of whom refused. In response, Avaaz blew this story up in the Indian media with NDTV, CNN-IBN and Reuters all covering the attempt to quash the debate.

President Zuma can save her life

On Thursday 9th August 2012, Avaaz unveiled a hard-hitting ad campaign in Johannesburg Airport’s International Arrivals Hall, South African Airways’ inflight magazine, and key Google search engines, calling on President Zuma to ban the trade of lion bones to make fake ‘medicines’ sold in Asia. The ads - which target tourists visiting South Africa - kickstart the second phase of a global campaign that began on June 27th in the form of petition signatures. So far over 697,011 people worldwide have called on president Zuma to ban the lion bone trade.

Campaign to Save Rio and Save the Planet

Over one million people have called for an end fossil fuel subsidies at the Rio Earth Summit -- but world leaders have failed to deliver on this no-brainer policy. Now, the only chance to save the talks from disaster rests with Brazil's Dilma. This ad calling on her to emerge a planet hero, will appear in the Financial Times tomorrow.

Campaign to Save Rio+20

Over one million people have called for an end fossil fuel subsidies at the Rio Earth Summit -- but world leaders have failed to deliver on this no-brainer policy. Now, the only chance to save the talks from disaster rests with Brazil's Dilma. This ad calling on her to emerge a planet hero, will appear in the Financial Times tomorrow.

Murdoch has too much influence over UK politics

The majority of the British public believe that Rupert Murdoch has too much influence over Britains politics and that the proposed takeover of BSkyB will give Murdoch and News Corp too much power over the media according to a new YouGov survey published by Avaaz. Over 100,000 people across Britain have signed the Avaaz petition and tens of thousands have sent messages to the government and called their MP´s. Avaaz took out this ad in the Financial Times to publish the survey results.

Ivory Coast 'Conflict Chocolate'

With Ivory Coast on the brink of civil war, Avaaz launched a campaign calling on chocolate companies to play a critical role in saving lives and bringing peace. Within days, 250,000 Avaaz members had sent urgent messages to companies like Nestle, Cargill, and Hershey's urging them to suspend trade with Gbagbo's illegal regime and commit to working only with the legitimate government. Cargill quickly announced plans to stop buying 'conflict chocolate' and on January 28, 2011 Avaaz took out a front-page advert in the Financial Times calling on Nestle to become an industry leader.

Save Sakineh Campaign

When news broke that an Iranian woman -- Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani -- would be stoned to death for allegedly committing adultery, Avaaz members funded an emergency ad campaign targeting the leaders of Brazil and Turkey -- two of Iran’s closest allies. Avaaz published full-page ads in the major Brazilian and Turkish newspapers, calling on President Lula and Prime Minister Ergodan to engage with Iran until Sakineh was safe. The ads, and accompanying call-in campaigns, caused high-level government interventions into the matter.

Guantanamo Bay

Inspired by sustained support for an end to torture from the world community and a clear majority of Americans, Avaaz mounted a metro billboard ad campaign in Washington DC in September 2009. Backed by thousands of donations from Avaaz members worldwide, the ads reminded policymakers that torture is illegal, unethical and a top recruiting tool for the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network.
Our edgy message was picked up by world media and set the U.S. capital buzzing.

Gaza Ceasefire

With the conflict in Gaza escalating beyond control, in January 2009, Avaaz ran a powerful ad in the Washington Post and the Roll Call, an influential Congressional paper. The ad appealed for strong U.S. leadership to broker a ceasefire and delivered an Avaaz ceasefire petition signed by 500,000 people.

Exxon Spoof TV ads

In 2009, Avaaz released a climate spoof ad exposing Exxon Mobil’s propaganda. The ad aired on Washington, DC TV channels while President Obama was hosting the world’s 17 largest economies to discuss a new desperately-needed global binding treaty on climate change.
Watch the ad!

China Mobile Ads

During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Avaaz spread an Olympic message of peace and hope to Chinese diaspora communities in New York and San Francisco by running a series of mobile billboards. The ads were part of our Handshake campaign to spread a powerful, unambiguous message of peace, friendship and dialogue.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ad

In June 2008, Avaaz posted a worldwide job recruitment advertisement for the United Nations’ next High Commissioner for Human Rights in The Economist in an attempt to inject greater transparency into the process.

Zimbabwe

Following Mugabe's sham victory in the June 2008 run-off election, more than 2,500 African Avaaz members contacted their governments and urged African Union member states to withhold recognition of Mugabe's regime. Avaaz amplified this message with a full-page ad in the Financial Times, calling for world leaders to isolate Zimbabwe.

Global Climate Wake Up Call Advert

In 2007, Avaaz aired this TV advert in multiple languages in key world capitals to tell global leaders to wake up to the climate challenge. Watch the ad!

Cli-Matrix Ad

A full-page "Cli-Matrix" advert in the Financial Times delivered to delegates at the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit portrayed world leaders as film heroes and exhorted them to "fund the fight to save the world."

Since launching in 2007, Avaaz has grown into a powerful and unprecedented global democratic force.

Avaaz has a simple democratic mission: close the gap between the world we have and the world most people everywhere want. Our community is unique in its ability to mobilize citizen pressure on governments everywhere to act on crises and opportunities anywhere, within as little as 24 hours.

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